Management and dissemination of information from a controlled-environment facility

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for dissemination of information from a controlled-environment facility may offer a non-resident and/or resident an option to subscribe to notifications about a particular resident of a controlled-environment facility and/or notifications about the controlled-environment facility. Identification and contact information may be accepted from the non-resident to establish the non-resident as a paid or non-paid subscriber to notifications about the resident and/or the controlled-environment facility. A determination may be made, or an indication may be received from a controlled-environment facility administration and management system, when information about the resident hosted by the controlled-environment administration and management system changes and/or when a change is made to information about the controlled-environment facility. As a result, the subscriber is contacted and notified of the change(s).

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/196,162, also entitled Management and Dissemination of Informationfrom a Controlled-Environment Facility, filed Mar. 4, 2014, which issuedas U.S. Pat. No. 9,055,167 on Jun. 9, 2015, and of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/322,856, entitled Controlled-EnvironmentFacility Interactive Voice Response System Functionality FacilitatingRepetition of a Last Requested Action filed Jul. 2, 2014, both of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This specification relates generally to telecommunications systems, and,more particularly, to systems and methods for management anddissemination of information from a controlled-environment facility.

BACKGROUND

The following discussion sets forth the inventors' own knowledge ofcertain technologies and/or problems associated therewith. Accordingly,this discussion is not an admission of prior art, and it is not anadmission of the knowledge available to a person of ordinary skill inthe art.

Management and dissemination of information are typically at theforefront of the administrative burdens for controlled-environmentfacilities. Controlled-environment facilities, as used herein, mayinclude inmate facilities (e.g., municipal jails, county jails, stateprisons, federal prisons, military stockades, juvenile facilities, anddetention camps), or hospitals, nursing homes, camps, schools, and thelike. An example of the aforementioned administrative burden in acorrectional institution or detainment facility such as a county ormunicipal jail might arise when an individual is booked in as an inmateof the facility and questions are directed to that facility fromfriends, family, attorneys, and the like. Typically, a great number ofquestions, commonly from a number of telephone calls or visits, aredirected to the facility's booking personnel asking for details relatedto the newly booked inmate and his circumstances. However,controlled-environment facilities, particularly inmate facilities, maywish to avoid contact with friends and family members, because in manycases these friends or family members are emotional, and the facilityadministrators may wish to avoid conflict. Similarly, information aboutthe facility, such as visitation hours, location and the like, isconstantly being sought by the public, friends and family of residents,or the like. Typically, controlled-environment facilities do not employautomated information systems or the like. Additionally, schedulingvisitation from friends, family and others, use of commissaryfacilities, and the like, raise other administrative functions to burdenthe facility. Managing transactions within a jail or the like, such ascommissary deposits, medical payments, connecting with bail bondsmen,scheduling meetings and court dates with an attorney, and the likebecome tedious tasks for facility administrators.

Controlled-environment facilities may have goods and service providersor service professionals registered or otherwise eligible to providegoods or services to residents of the facility. Examples of such serviceproviders or professionals may include attorneys, bail bondsmen, and thelike, registered or eligible to provide services to the residents of amunicipal or county jail. It may be problematic for such professionalsto be notified of the intake of new residents that may require the goodsor services of the professional. Regardless, such professionalstypically need to communicate with the jail to obtain information aboutclients and potential clients, as performance of services dictate.Typically, such professionals or service providers must place atelephone call to the facility to obtain information and/or suchinformation must be obtained in person or through the mail. For example,in the case of a municipal or county jail, a bail bondsman might need todetermine the charges against a suspect and any bond amounts orconditions that may have already been set. Attorneys may need similarinformation as well as information concerning court dates and the like.To obtain such information a professional might need to contact multipleparties. The dissemination of information to goods and service providersor service professionals may be a burden on the facility and obtainingthis information may be time consuming for the provider or serviceprofessional.

As pointed out above, family members or friends typically desireinformation related to a resident of a controlled-environment facility.For example, when a relative calls to obtain information related to aperson recently arrested, such as charges, opportunities for visitation,personal item needs and the like, they speak to a booking officer orsimilar personnel in the jail. The booking officer may direct the friendor family member to somebody else to obtain some of the requestedinformation. Several calls may be required to gather the desiredinformation. Thereafter, the family or friends of the detained party mayneed to look for professional assistance for the detainee. For example,the friends or family may seek out the services of a bail bondsmanand/or attorney. This may require research or at least consultation of atelephone directory, advertisements, or the like. Typically, the friendsor family members would then need to confer with the professional(s) todetermine if the professional(s) may be of assistance in this particularcase. If assistance is not available from that professional, due totechnical or time constraints (i.e., the professional is not registeredwith the facility, does not handle the types of matters involved, hasother obligations of his or her time, or the like), then the friends andfamily must continue their search for assistance. Such a process isquite time consuming, often requiring days to complete. However, serviceprofessionals, and the like, oftentimes depend on calls coming fromresidents of a facility, or from friends or family of these residents,seeking their services. Problematically, no mechanisms exist to aid aprofessional in offering their services, particularly where the friendsor family may seek best value goods or professional services.

SUMMARY

Embodiments disclosed herein are directed to the management anddissemination of information from a controlled-environment facility. Inan illustrative, non-limiting embodiment, a method may include receivingan identification of each of a plurality of non-residents of acontrolled-environment facility with whom a resident of thecontrolled-environment facility is allowed to communicate; contacting aselected one of the plurality of non-residents; and during the contact,allowing the selected non-resident to establish or fund an accountassociated with the resident. For example, the controlled-environmentfacility may be a correctional facility and the resident may be aprisoner, inmate, detainee, or arrestee.

The method may further comprise storing the identification of theplurality of non-residents in a Personal Allowed Number (PAN) list orPre-Approved Contact (PAC) list associated with the resident. In somecases, contacting the selected one of the plurality of non-residents mayinclude employing an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, a textmessage, email, video message, or video mail. The identification may beprovided by the resident, and it may include a name, a phone number, oran email address of each of the plurality of non-residents.

The method may also include identifying one or more of the plurality ofthe non-residents with whom the resident has not had communications andselecting one of the identified non-residents as the selectednon-resident. The method may further include allowing the selected oneof the plurality of non-residents to reach a bondsman or an attorneyduring the contact.

The method may also include providing information to the non-residentregarding the resident's status with respect to thecontrolled-environment facility or physical location within thecontrolled-environment facility during the contact. In some cases, theinformation may be provided in real-time. The method may further includeproviding information to the non-resident regarding the resident'smedical or health-related status.

In another illustrative, non-limiting embodiment, a method may includereceiving, from a resident of a controlled-environment facility,identification of a plurality of non-residents of thecontrolled-environment facility; determining, among the plurality ofnon-residents, a set of non-residents with whom the resident is allowedto communicate; contacting at least one non-resident from the set ofnon-residents; and providing information to the at least onenon-resident during the contact about how to release the resident fromthe controlled-environment facility.

The information may include contact information for a bail bonds orlegal service available to the resident. The bail bonds or legal serviceavailable to the resident may be different from another bail bonds orlegal service available to another resident of thecontrolled-environment facility. The information may also include anautomatic bonding offer made to the at least one non-resident.

The method may also include allowing the selected non-resident toestablish or fund an account associated with the resident during thecontact. The method may further include identifying one or morenon-residents of subset of non-residents with whom the resident has nothad communications, and selecting one of the identified non-residents asthe at least one non-resident.

In yet another illustrative, non-limiting embodiment, a method mayinclude accessing a Personal Allowed Number (PAN) list or Pre-ApprovedContact (PAC) list associated with a resident of acontrolled-environment facility, identifying one or more non-residentslisted on the resident's associated PAN or PAC, and providinginformation to the one or more non-residents regarding the resident'sstatus within the controlled-environment facility. For example, theresident's status may include the resident's physical location withinthe controlled-environment facility.

The method may also include providing the resident's physical locationinformation obtained via one or more sensors distributed across thecontrolled-environment facility. The method may further includeproviding the resident's physical location information to the one ormore non-residents in real-time as the resident travels betweendifferent places within the controlled-environment facility. The methodmay also include allowing the one or more non-residents to establish orfund an account associated with the resident. The method may furtherinclude providing information to the one or more non-residents about howto release the resident from the controlled-environment facility.

In accordance with various embodiments of systems and methods, formanagement and dissemination of information from acontrolled-environment facility a resident or non-resident may beoffered an option to subscribe to notifications about the residentand/or notifications about the controlled-environment facility itself.The non-resident may be offered the opportunity to subscribe tonotifications about the particular resident and/or about thecontrolled-environment facility is during a call by the non-resident toinquire about the resident and/or during a call by the non-resident tofund an account of the resident.

Subscription to notifications about the resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility may be accepted, establishing thenon-resident as a subscriber. Accepting the subscription may includeaccepting a telephone number an/or an email address provided by thesubscribing non-resident. Accepting and establishing the subscriptionmay further include establishing whether the subscription will be paidor free in some embodiments and accepting funding for the subscriptionfrom the subscribing non-resident if the subscription is a paidsubscription.

A determination may be made, or an indication may be received, when achange is made to information about the resident and/or when a change ismade to information about the controlled-environment facility. Thesubscriber is then contacted and notified of the change. In accordancewith various embodiments of the present systems and methods, thesubscriber may be contacted by placing a telephone call to a numberprovided by the subscriber during subscription and notifying thesubscriber of the change(s) and playing an interactive voice message,for example. That is, a controlled-environment facility IVR system mayplace the call and play the message to the subscriber, presenting thechange for the resident and/or the change for the controlled-environmentfacility. The controlled-environment facility IVR may, at such timepresent the subscriber an opportunity to obtain further informationabout the resident and/or the facility using the IVR, during the call.Additionally or alternatively, the IVR may present the subscriber anoption to carry an action(s) with respect to the resident correspondingto a similar action(s) previously carried out by a caller associatedwith the phone number. As a further addition or alternative, the IVR maypresent the subscriber an offer to facilitate an action related to thechange.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present systems andmethods, the subscriber may be contacted by sending the subscriber ashort message service, enhanced messaging service and/or multimediamessage service text message to the number provided by the subscriberduring subscription. In such embodiments the notification to thesubscriber may provide a statement of the change for the resident and/orthe change for the controlled-environment facility. In accordance withvarious embodiments of the present systems and methods, the subscribermay be contacted by sending an email to the email address provided bythe subscriber to notify the subscriber of the change(s) for theresident and/or the controlled-environment facility. Such a notificationmay include an indication of a former status of the resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility and a new status of the resident and/orthe controlled-environment facility. Also, notification of thesubscriber may be carried out via a website. For example, an email (textor interactive voice message) may include a hyperlink (or otherwiseidentify a link) to a website where more information about the residentand/or the controlled-environment facility may be obtained by thesubscriber. Also, notification of the subscriber may be carried out viaa video, such as via video mail (which may be interactive), a videocall, or the like.

In various embodiments, one or more of the techniques described hereinmay be performed by one or more computer systems. In other variousembodiments, a tangible computer-readable storage medium may haveprogram instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by one or morecomputer systems, cause the one or more computer systems to execute oneor more operations disclosed herein. In yet other various embodiments, asystem may include at least one processor and memory coupled to the atleast one processor, the memory configured to store program instructionsexecutable by the at least one processor to cause the system to executeone or more operations disclosed herein.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technicaladvantages of the present invention in order that the detaileddescription of the invention that follows may be better understood.Additional features and advantages of the invention will be describedhereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. Itshould be appreciated that the conception and specific embodimentdisclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designingother structures for carrying out the same purposes of the presentinvention. It should also be realized that such equivalent constructionsdo not depart from the invention as set forth in the appended claims.The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of theinvention, both as to its organization and method of operation, togetherwith further objects and advantages will be better understood from thefollowing description when considered in connection with theaccompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, thateach of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration anddescription only and is not intended as a definition of the limits ofthe present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will nowbe made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn toscale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of an environment where acommunication system may be employed, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example of a visitation system, according tosome embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of a computer system configuredto implement various systems and methods described herein, according tosome embodiments;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an example of a method for establishing orfunding resident communication accounts, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an example of a method for providing residentrelease information to a non-resident, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example of a method for providing residentstatus or location information to a non-resident according to someembodiments; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an implementation of an example process fordissemination of information from a controlled-environment facility, inaccordance with some embodiments.

While this specification provides several embodiments and illustrativedrawings, a person of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that thepresent specification is not limited only to the embodiments or drawingsdescribed. It should be understood that the drawings and detaileddescription are not intended to limit the specification to theparticular form disclosed, but, on the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within thespirit and scope of the claims. As used herein, the word “may” is meantto convey a permissive sense (i.e., meaning “having the potential to”),rather than a mandatory sense (i.e., meaning “must”). Similarly, thewords “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean “including, but notlimited to.”

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention now will be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings. This invention may, however, beembodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limitedto the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments areprovided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and willfully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Oneskilled in the art may be able to use the various embodiments of theinvention.

This specification discloses systems and methods for managing anddisseminating information from a controlled-environment facility.Various types of controlled-environment facilities are present intoday's society, and persons may be voluntary or involuntary residentsof such facilities, whether temporarily or permanently. Examples ofcontrolled-environment facilities may include correctional institutionsor facilities (e.g., municipal jails, county jails, state prisons,federal prisons, military stockades, juvenile facilities, detentioncamps, home incarceration environments, etc.), healthcare facilities(e.g., hospitals, nursing homes, mental health facilities,rehabilitation clinics, such as drug and alcohol rehabilitationfacilities, etc.), restricted living quarters (e.g., hotels, resorts,camps, dormitories, barracks, etc.), and the like.

For convenience of explanation, various examples discussed herein arepresented in the context of correctional facilities. For instance, insome of the implementations discussed below, a controlled-environmentfacility may be referred to as a jail or prison, and its residents maybe referred to as arrestees, detainees, or inmates. It should beunderstood, however, that the systems and methods described herein maybe similarly applicable to other types of controlled-environmentfacilities and their respective residents (e.g., a hospital and itspatients, a school dormitory and its students, etc.).

The inventors hereof have recognized that correctional facilitiespresent numerous difficulties in areas such as security, surveillance,financial transactions, communications, visitation, investigation,budgetary, etc.; which in turn make technological implementationsuniquely challenging in those environments. In many cases, technologiesthat are used outside of correctional facilities are not immediatelyapplicable to the correctional environment without significant changesand modifications. Moreover, correctional facilities may have specificneeds that are not particularly relevant outside of those environments.

As such, some of the systems and methods described herein may bespecifically tailored to address one or more of the aforementioned needsand challenges. It should be understood, however, that other systems andmethods described herein may also be applicable to other types ofcontrolled-environment facilities and their respective residents (e.g.,a hospital and its patients) and, in some cases, may be applicable toenvironments that are not controlled at all.

Turning now to FIG. 1, a block diagram of an illustrative environmentwhere a visitation system may be employed is depicted according to someembodiments. As shown, communication processing system 101 may providetelephone services, videoconferencing, online chat, and othercommunication services to a controlled-environment facility. Forexample, in some cases, communication system 101 may be co-located witha controlled-environment facility. Alternatively, communication system101 may be centrally or remotely located with respect to one or morecontrolled-environment facilities and/or may provide communicationservices to multiple controlled-environment facilities. More generally,however, it should be noted that communication system 101 may assume avariety of forms, and may be configured to serve a variety of facilitiesand/or users, whether within or outside of a controlled-environmentfacility.

In the context of a correctional facility, for instance, inmates may usetelephones 102 to access certain communication services. In somefacilities, inmates may also use a personal computer wireless device 104to access such services. For example, an inmate may initiate telephoneservices by lifting the receiver on telephone 102, at which time theinmate may be prompted to provide a personal identification number(PIN), Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, or other identifyinginformation or biometrics. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) unit 117 maygenerate and play prompts or other messages to inmates on devices 102and/or 104.

Under the control of communication processing system 101, devices 102and 104 may be capable of connecting to a non-resident's (i.e., a personnot incarcerated or otherwise committed to a controlled-environmentfacility) device 105 or telephone 106 across a publicly switchedtelephone network (PSTN) 107. For example, device 105 may be a mobilephone, whereas telephone 106 may be located at a non-resident's home,inmate visitation center, etc. Switch 108 in communication processingsystem 101 may be used to connect calls across PSTN 107. Additionally oralternatively, the non-resident may be at telephone 109 or device 112,which is on an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Voice-over-IP(VoIP), or packet data network 110, such as, for example the Internet.Router 111 of communication system 101 is used to route data packetsassociated with a call connection to destination telephone 109 or device112.

Multipurpose communication devices 103 a-n (each collectively referredto as “Multipurpose communication device 103”) may have videoconferencing capabilities to enable inmates to participate in videovisitation sessions with non-residents of the correctional facility viavideo communication, secure online chat, etc. For example, anon-resident party may have a personal or laptop computer 113 withcamera 114 (or a cell phone, tablet computer, etc.). Additionally oralternatively, device 112 may have an integrated camera and display(e.g., a smart phone, tablet, etc.). A network connection between theparties may be established and supported by an organization orcommercial service that provides computer services and software for usein telecommunications and/or VOIP, such as SKYPE®. Additionally oralternatively, the correctional facility and/or the destination may usevideoconferencing equipment compatible with ITU H.323, H.320, H.264,and/or V.80, or other suitable standards. Generally speaking, eachmultipurpose communication device 103 may be disposed in a visitationroom, in a pod, kiosk, etc.

In addition to providing certain visitation and communicationoperations, communication processing system 101 may attempt to ensurethat a resident's calls, video conferences, online chats, etc. areperformed only with non-residents whose identities, names, devices,email addresses, phone numbers, etc. are listed in that resident'sPre-Approved Contact (PAC) list or Personal Allowed Number (PAN) list.Each resident's PAC/PAN list may be stored, for example, in database 115maintained by Administration and Management System (AMS) 116. Inaddition to PAC/PAN list(s), AMS 116 may also store resident profiledata (RPD), as well as communication and/or visitation rules applicableto each resident.

For example, in the context of a correctional facility, AMS 116 isreferred to as a Jail Management System (JMS). Within the AMS or JMS116, database 115 may include information such as balances for inmatetrust and calling or communication accounts; trial schedule; convictiondata; criminal record; sentencing data, such as time served, timeremaining to be served, and release date; cell and cellmate assignments;inmate restrictions and warnings; commissary order history; telephonecall history; call recordings; known or suspected gang or criminalaffiliations; known or suspected affiliates, accomplices, or gangmembers; and any other information that may be relevant or useful tocorrectional facility staff to house and maintain inmates.

Visitation system 130 may be configured to provide, schedule, and managevisitation or communication services to residents and non-residents of acontrolled-environment facility. To that end, visitation system 130 maybe coupled to PSTN 107 and/or network 110 in a manner similar tocommunication processing system 101 by also including one or moregateways, switches and/or routers. Accordingly, visitation system 130may be configured to communicate with one or more residents of thecontrolled-environment facility via devices 102-104 and with one or morenon-residents via devices 105, 106, 109, 112, and/or 113. Althoughvisitation system 130 is shown in FIG. 1 as being remotely located withrespect to communication processing system 101 and thecontrolled-environment facility, in other cases visitation system 130may be co-located with the facility and/or integrated withincommunication system 101.

In some implementations, communication system 101 may be adapted toperform video visitation monitoring operations configured to monitorand/or record video visitation sessions (e.g., as electronic videofiles). In scenarios where communication system 101 is located withinthe controlled-environment facility, it may have direct access to AMS orJMS 116. In other embodiments, however, communication system 101 may belocated remotely with respect to the controlled-environment facility,and access to AMS or JMS 116 may be obtained via a computer network suchas, for example, network 110.

In some implementations, multipurpose communication devices 103 may becomputer-based systems. For example, each of multipurpose communicationdevices 103 may include a display, camera, and handset. The display maybe any suitable electronic display such as, for example, a LiquidCrystal Display (LCD), a touchscreen display (e.g., resistive,capacitive, etc.), or the like, whereas the camera may be any suitableimaging device such as, for instance, a video camera or webcam equippedwith Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs), ComplementaryMetal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensors, etc. A handsetmay be similar to a traditional telephone handset including an earpieceportion (with a loudspeaker), a handle portion, and a mouthpiece portion(with a microphone). In other embodiments, Multipurpose communicationdevices 103 may assume the form of any computer, tablet computer, smartphone, etc., or any other consumer device or appliance withvideoconferencing capabilities.

In some embodiments, communication system 101 may be configured tocollect and/or determine the incarceration status of a given inmatewithin a facility, and store that information within AMS 116. Forexample, as an inmate proceeds through the various stages ofincarceration, from arrest to booking to being assigned a jail cell, forexample, AMS 116 may be updated accordingly.

Additionally or alternatively, the physical location of each inmatewithin the controlled-environment facility may be detected or otherwiseinput into communication system 101 for storage within AMS. Forinstance, when a given inmate travels between different locations withinthe facility (e.g., from his or her jail cell to the cafeteria orvisitation area), one or more RFID sensors distributed throughout thefacility may pick up a signal from an RFID tag worn by the inmate, andcommunication system 101 may save that information in AMS 116. In somecases, an inmate's physical location information may be obtained inreal-time.

Additionally or alternatively, health or medical status for each inmatemay also be stored within AMS. For example, when an inmate visits theinfirmary, consults a doctor, receives a prescription, obtainsmedication, etc., related information may be stored in a suitabledatabase and be provided to non-residents at a later time.

In accordance with some embodiments, a constituent may be offered anopportunity to subscribe to such notifications for a particularresident, such as during a call to inquire about the resident, fund hisor her account(s), via a website, in a text message, and/or the like.Similarly the resident him or herself may be offered an opportunity toreceive such notifications, such as on an intelligent resident device(e.g. a smartphone, tablet computing device, or the like, adapted and/oraccepted for use in the controlled-environment facility.) Such asubscription offer may be presented to the resident or non-resident,during, before or after any voice call, video call or visitation, or anyother communication.

Thereafter, when changes with respect to that resident, such as changesin AMS 116, occur a notification message to the subscriber is triggered.As noted, such notifications may take the form of a phone call (such asmay be initiated and carried out by IVR 117, for example), an email(such as may be sent by controlled-environment facility administrationand management system 116, for example), an SMS text such as may be sentby controlled-environment facility communication management system 101,(for example), a video mail or call, notification via a website, or thelike. In accordance with various embodiments, and as discussed ingreater detail below, the message may contain such information on thechange in status, information, or the like, as the notification mediumwill afford. For example, an SMS text may only include a brief statementof the nature of the new status, while an email may detail the formerstatus as well as presenting the new status and any related information,Internet links, or such. Similarly, a notification call by IVR 117, orthe like, may in accordance with the present systems and methods, affordthe subscriber an opportunity to acquire further information about theresident using IVR 117, such as during the same call to the subscriber.To this end, IVR 117 may facilitate repetition of a last requestedaction in accordance with the present systems and methods and/or offerto facilitate an action related to the changed status or informationduring the call to the subscriber.

Referring to FIG. 2, a block diagram of system 130 for providingvisitation services to residents of a controlled-environment facility isdepicted according to some embodiments. As shown, visitation system 130includes user interface 220 and AMS or JMS interface 230. In someembodiments, residents and/or non-residents of one or morecontrolled-environment facilities may access, interact with, orotherwise use visitation system 130 via user interface 220. For example,user interface 220 may be provided as a web interface, IVR interface, orthe like.

In some scenarios, resident 205-A and/or non-resident 210-A may connectto visitation system 130 via user interface 220. For example, resident205-A and/or non-resident 210-A may directly or indirectly (e.g.,through an officer or personnel of the controlled-environment facility)reach a computer terminal or a telephone disposed within acontrolled-environment facility and request visitation services.

In other scenarios, resident 205-B, non-resident 210-B, and/ornon-resident 210-C may interact with user interface 220 via PSTN 107using an IVR system or the like. Additionally or alternatively, resident205-N, non-resident 210-N, and/or non-resident 210-M may access awebsite, webpage, Internet portal, etc. via a computer network orInternet 110, for example, using a personal computing device (e.g.,running a web browser), cell phone (e.g., via an “app”), prisonterminal, or any other suitable client device. Content server 215 may beconfigured to provide electronic content (e.g., video, audio, televisionprogramming, motion pictures, etc.) to visitation system 130 via userinterface 220, AMS interface 230, or any other suitable interface.Additionally content may be created by visitation system 130 via userinterface 220 to be viewed by non-residents 210A, 210 b, 210C, 210N.

When implemented to support web-based interactions, user interface 220may be deployed using a number of suitable techniques. For example, userinterface 220 may be implemented using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML),Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Javascript, PHP, Perl, C/C++, or anysuitable combination of these or other commercial, open source and/orproprietary languages, frameworks or development environments forgenerating and distributing web-based information. Further, in someimplementations, a request and response data may be exchanged between aclient and visitation system 130 through the use of messages ordocuments formatted in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) or otherplatform-independent data format. For example, in some embodiments, aweb services request to provide visitation services may be embodied inan XML document including fields identifying the person(s) that will beparticipating in the visitation, the type, time, and/or duration of thevisitation, and possibly other fields, in which each field is delimitedby an XML tag describing the type of data the field represents. In otherimplementations, web services-related documents may be transmittedbetween applications making requests and targeted web services using aweb-based data transfer protocol, such as a version of the HypertextTransfer Protocol (HTTP), for example.

In some embodiments, visitation system 130 may interact with one or moreAMS or JMS systems 116A-N either directly or via a computer network suchas the Internet 110. As previously noted, each AMS or JMS system 116A-Nmay each include its own database 115A-N, respectively. Generallyspeaking, databases 115A-N may include any suitable type of applicationor data structure that may be configured as a persistent datarepository. For example, databases 115A-N may be configured asrelational databases that include one or more tables of columns and rowsand that may be searched or queried according to a query language, suchSQL or the like. Alternatively, databases 115A-N may be configured asstructured data stores that include records formatted according to amarkup language, such as XML or the like. In other embodiments,databases 115A-N may be implemented using one or more arbitrarily orminimally structured files managed and accessible through acorresponding type of application.

In addition to interfaces 220 and 230, visitation system 130 includesvisitation request module 240, visitation scheduling module 250, accountsetup module 260, notification or communication module 270, and billingengine 280. Visitation request module 240 may be configured to receiveone or more visitation scheduling requests, modification requests, orcancellation requests, for example, via user interface 220. Visitationscheduling module 250 may be configured to execute an incoming request,for example, by scheduling a new multi-party or event-driven visitation,modifying a previously scheduled multi-party or event-driven visitation,or canceling the previously scheduled multi-party or event-drivenvisitation.

Account setup module 260 may be configured to identify one or morenon-residents and allow those non-residents to establish and/or fundcommunication or calling accounts for a given inmate. Further, accountsetup module 260 may be employed as part of subscription by anon-resident, or resident, to notifications about changes to a status ofthe resident, such as with respect to the controlled-environmentfacility, or information about a resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility itself. Notification module 270 may beconfigured to notify a party (such as, in some examples, in conjunctionwith IVR 117) of a particular visitation, modification, cancelation,etc. In some embodiments, notification module 270 may also be used toprovide resident release information and/or to provide resident statusor location information to non-residents, such as the aforementionedsubscribers. Billing engine 280 may be configured to determineparameters such as a number of parties or devices participating in avisitation of communication session, a type of session, etc. and bill aresident or non-resident for the communication session depending uponthose parameters. These, and other techniques, are illustrated in moredetail below.

In various embodiments, modules 220-280 shown in FIG. 2 may representsets of software routines, logic functions, and/or data structures thatare configured to perform operations described herein. Although thesemodules are shown as distinct logical blocks, in other embodiments atleast some of the functionality provided by these modules may becombined into fewer blocks. Conversely, one or more of modules 220-280may be implemented such that it is divided among two or more logicalblocks. Moreover, although shown with a particular configuration, inother embodiments these various modules may be rearranged in other ways.

Also, in certain embodiments, each of the different components ofvisitation system 130 may be implemented in software, hardware or anysuitable combination thereof, in an integrated fashion (e.g., on asingle server or computer system) or in a distributed fashion (e.g., viaa number of discrete systems configured to communicate with one anothervia a network). Additionally or alternatively, the operation ofvisitation system 130 may be partitioned into components in a differentfashion than illustrated in FIG. 2.

Embodiments of systems and methods for remote multi-party and/orevent-driven visitation for residents of controlled-environmentfacilities, as described herein, may be implemented or executed by oneor more computer systems. One such computer system is illustrated inFIG. 3. In various embodiments, computer system 300 may be a server, amainframe computer system, a workstation, a network computer, a desktopcomputer, a laptop, or the like. For example, in some cases, one or moreof the blocks shown in FIG. 2 may be implemented as computer system 300.Moreover, one or more of communication devices 103, 104, and 113;communication system 101; and visitation system 130 may include one ormore computers in the form of computer system 300. As explained above,in different embodiments these various computer systems may beconfigured to communicate with each other in any suitable way, such as,for example, via network 110.

As illustrated, computer system 300 includes one or more processors310A-N coupled to a system memory 320 via bus 330. Computer system 300further includes a network interface 340 coupled to bus 330, and one ormore I/O controllers 350, which in turn are coupled to peripheraldevices such as cursor control device 360, keyboard 370, display(s) 380,etc. Each of I/O devices 360-380 may be capable of communicating withI/O controllers 350, for example, via a wired connection (e.g., serialport, Universal Serial Bus port) or wireless connection (e.g., Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, Near Field Communications Link, etc.) Other devices mayinclude, for example, surveillance cameras, microphones,antennas/wireless transducers, phone detection modules, etc.

In various embodiments, computer system 300 may be a single-processorsystem including one processor 310A, or a multi-processor systemincluding two or more processors 310A-N (e.g., two, four, eight, oranother suitable number). Processors 310A-N may be any processor capableof executing program instructions. For example, in various embodiments,processors 310A-N may be general-purpose or embedded processorsimplementing any of a variety of instruction set architectures (ISAs),such as the ×86, PowerPC®, ARM®, SPARC®, or MIPS® ISAs, or any othersuitable ISA. In multi-processor systems, each of processors 310 maycommonly, but not necessarily, implement the same ISA. Also, in someembodiments, at least one processor 310A may be a graphics processingunit (GPU) or other dedicated graphics-rendering device.

System memory 320 may be configured to store program instructions and/ordata accessible by processor(s) 310A-N. In various embodiments, systemmemory 320 may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, suchas static random access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM),nonvolatile/Flash-type memory, or any other type of memory. Asillustrated, program instructions and data implementing certainoperations such as those described herein may be stored within systemmemory 320 as program instructions 325 and data storage 335,respectively. In other embodiments, program instructions and/or data maybe received, sent or stored upon different types of computer-accessiblemedia or on similar media separate from system memory 320 or computersystem 300.

Generally speaking, a computer-accessible medium may include anytangible or non-transitory storage media or memory media such aselectronic, magnetic, or optical media—e.g., disk or CD/DVD-ROM coupledto computer system 300 via bus 330. The terms “tangible” and“non-transitory,” as used herein, are intended to describe acomputer-readable storage medium (or “memory”) excluding propagatingelectromagnetic signals, but are not intended to otherwise limit thetype of physical computer-readable storage device that is encompassed bythe phrase computer-readable medium or memory. For instance, the terms“non-transitory computer-readable medium” or “tangible memory” areintended to encompass types of storage devices that do not necessarilystore information permanently, including for example, random accessmemory (RAM). Program instructions and data stored on a tangiblecomputer-accessible storage medium in non-transitory form may further betransmitted by transmission media or signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals, which may be conveyed via acommunication medium such as a network and/or a wireless link.

In an embodiment, bus 330 may be configured to coordinate I/O trafficbetween processor 310, system memory 320, and any peripheral devices inthe device, including network interface 340 or other peripheralinterfaces, such as input/output devices 350. In some embodiments, bus330 may perform any necessary protocol, timing or other datatransformations to convert data signals from one component (e.g., systemmemory 320) into a format suitable for use by another component (e.g.,processor 310). In some embodiments, bus 330 may include support fordevices attached through various types of peripheral buses, such as avariant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard orthe Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In someembodiments, the function of bus 330 may be split into two or moreseparate components, such as a northbridge chipset and a southbridgechipset, for example. In addition, in some embodiments some or all ofthe functionality of bus 330, such as an interface to system memory 320,may be incorporated directly into processor(s) 310A-N.

Network interface 340 may be configured to allow data to be exchangedbetween computer system 300 and other devices attached to a network,such as other computer systems, or between nodes of computer system 300.In various embodiments, network interface 340 may support communicationvia wired or wireless general data networks, such as any suitable typeof Ethernet network, for example; via telecommunications/telephonynetworks such as analog voice networks or digital fiber communicationsnetworks; via storage area networks such as Fibre Channel SANs, or viaany other suitable type of network and/or protocol.

I/O controllers 350 may, in some embodiments, enable communications withone or more display terminals, keyboards, keypads, touchpads, scanningdevices, voice or optical recognition devices, mobile devices, or anyother devices suitable for entering or retrieving data by one or morecomputer system 300. Multiple I/O controllers 350 may be present incomputer system 300 or may be distributed on various nodes of computersystem 300. In some embodiments, I/O devices may be separate fromcomputer system 300 and may interact with one or more nodes of computersystem 300 through a wired or wireless connection, such as over networkinterface 340.

As shown in FIG. 3, memory 320 may include program instructions 325,configured to implement certain embodiments described herein, and datastorage 335, comprising various data may be accessible by programinstructions 325. In an embodiment, program instructions 325 may includesoftware elements of embodiments illustrated herein. For example,program instructions 325 may be implemented in various embodiments usingany desired programming language, scripting language, or combination ofprogramming languages and/or scripting languages (e.g., C, C++, C#,Java™, JavaScript™, Perl, etc.). Data storage 335 may include data thatmay be used in these embodiments (e.g., recorded communications,profiles for different modes of operations, etc.). In other embodiments,other or different software elements and data may be included.

A person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that computersystem 300 is merely illustrative and is not intended to limit the scopeof the disclosure described herein. In particular, the computer systemand devices may include any combination of hardware or software that canperform the indicated operations. In addition, the operations performedby the illustrated components may, in some embodiments, be performed byfewer components or distributed across additional components. Similarly,in other embodiments, the operations of some of the illustratedcomponents may not be provided and/or other additional operations may beavailable. Accordingly, systems and methods described herein may beimplemented or executed with other computer system configurations.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a flowchart of method 400 for establishing orfunding resident communication accounts is depicted. In someembodiments, method 400 may be performed, at least in part, bycommunication system 101 and/or visitation system 130 of FIG. 1. Asshown, at block 401, method 400 may include receiving identificationinformation for non-residents with whom a resident is allowed tocommunicate. For example, block 401 may correspond to a stage in theinmate's incarceration when the inmate provides the identificationinformation to facility personnel and/or computer systems (e.g., duringbooking, etc.). In some implementations, such information may includenames, phone numbers, or email addresses of each non-resident.

At block 402, method 400 may include recognizing, among thenon-residents identified in block 401, those that may be authorized tobe contacted by the inmate. For example, facility personnel and/orcomputer systems may use the identification information to performcriminal background checks, run credit reports, etc. for eachnon-resident. The subset of authorized non-residents may be added tothat particular resident's PAN/PAC list.

At block 403, method 400 may include determining certain criteria forestablishing or funding the resident's communication accounts such as,for example a calling account or the like. In some cases, the criteriamay be determined based upon a service contract between he facility anda telecommunications carrier. Examples of relevant criteria may include,but are not limited to, available communication products, pricing, othercosts including taxes and fees, rules and restrictions based uponaccount type and facility requirements, etc.

At block 404, method 400 may include initiating contact with a selectedone of the subset of non-residents and, during the contact, allowing theselected non-resident to establish or fund an account for the residentor non-resident. In some cases, the selected non-resident may beproactively contacted depending upon whether there has been any attempt,a number of attempts, or a number of successful attempts by the residentto contact the non-resident. In other cases, the selected non-residentmay be proactively contacted to ask for account funds, even though theselected non-resident may not be the person communicating with theinmate (i.e., ordinarily a non-payer). For instance, the resident'sPAC/PAN list may include a number of non-resident persons and theselected non-resident may be one of those non-residents with whom theresident has not had communications since his or her incarceration, orfor a selected period of time (e.g., the past 2 weeks or 3 months).

In some implementations, the operations of block 404 may be performed atleast in part, by an IVR system configured to automatically dial aselected non-resident's telephone number. The IVR system may thenprovide some or all of the criteria information of block 403 and maycollect billing information sufficient to allow creation and/or fundingor a calling account or the like (e.g., credit card account, bankaccount, etc.). Moreover, in other implementations, contacting thenon-resident may be performed via an email, instant message, chatsession, video message, etc. For example, an email may be sent to theselected non-resident that contains a hyperlink which, when clicked oractivated by the non-resident, directs the non-resident's web browser toa webpage from where the non-resident can provide credit cardinformation, bank account information, etc.

It should be appreciated that, in some cases, the operations of FIG. 4may also be used to create other types of accounts, different fromcommunications or calling accounts. Generally speaking, communication orcalling accounts may be usable primarily for funding a resident'scommunications. In other embodiments, however, a selected non-residentmay be proactively contacted to establish and/or fund commissaryaccounts primarily usable by a resident to purchase commissary goodssold under control of the controlled-environment facility.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an example of method 500 for providing residentrelease information to a non-resident. In some embodiments, method 500may be performed, at least in part, by communication system 101 and/orvisitation system 130. As shown, at block 501, method 500 may includereceiving identification of a plurality of non-residents. Suchidentification may be received directly from the resident and/or fromPAC/PAN list(s) previously associated with the resident.

At block 502, method 500 may include contacting a selected non-resident.As in block 503 of FIG. 5, here the contact may be performed via IVRsystem, email, website, chat, video message, etc. Then, at block 503,method 500 may include providing the contacted non-resident informationabout how to release the resident from the controlled-environmentfacility.

For example, the information may include contact information for a bailbonds or legal service available to the resident. It should be notedthat, in some cases, the types of service available to a particularresident may be different from those available to another resident evenwithin the same facility. As an example, a given resident may not beeligible to post bond, while another resident may be. If the resident'sRPD record indicates that the resident can be released on bond, thecontact of a bondsman may be provided to the non-resident; otherwisethat information may be withheld or not available.

As another example, a given resident may be eligible to access a publicdefender or pro bono attorney, whereas other residents may not be.Moreover, certain residents may be charged with felonies or otherserious crimes, and other residents may be charged with misdemeanors orless serious offenses. In each case, different types or services orservice providers may be more suitable for securing a resident's releasefrom the facility. Accordingly, in some embodiments the informationprovided to the non-resident may be automatically customized to theresident's particular incarceration situation.

In some embodiments, release information provided at block 503 mayinclude an offer for the automatic bonding of the resident. For example,the telecommunications carrier or communications service providerserving the controlled-environment facility may act as bonding agentand/or work in cooperation with a bonding agent so as to allow thecontacted non-resident to post bond for the benefit of the resident uponsuccessful completion of an automated application process (e.g., viaIVR, etc.) or the like.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of one example of method 600 for providingresident status or location information to a non-resident. In someembodiments, method 600 may be performed, at least in part, bycommunication system 101 and/or visitation system 130. As shown, atblock 601, method 600 may include obtaining a resident's status orphysical location within a controlled-environment facility. In somecases, the resident's status or physical location may be retrieved fromAMS 116 and/or an RPD database.

For instance, the status may include whether or not the resident isincarcerated, whether the resident has been arrested, has been booked,has been assigned a jail cell, has been approved to participate in awork-release program, has a preselected minimum amount of money in acalling or commissary account, is sick or undergoing medical treatmentfor a given condition, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the statusmay include medical or health-related information about the resident.Additionally or alternatively, the physical location of the resident mayinclude a specific room (e.g., by name, type, code, number, etc.) withinthe facility, an area of the facility (e.g., a visitation area, abooking area, a common area, etc.), a particular jail cell, or the like.

At block 601, method 600 may include accessing the resident's associatedPAN/PAC list and identifying one or more non-residents on that list.Then, at block 602, method 600 may include providing information to theone or more non-residents regarding the resident's status, such as withrespect to the controlled-environment facility, or physical locationwithin the controlled-environment facility. In some implementations, theoperations of block 602 may be configured as a “follow-me” service thatupdates the non-resident with respect to the resident's status and/orlocation in real-time or near real-time as the resident moves within thefacility and/or is further processed by the facility personnel. The“follow me” service may automatically provide information to thenon-resident via telephone, email, text messages, etc. In some cases,two or more modes of communication may be employed at once to ensure thenon-resident's receipt of the resident's status or physical location ina timely manner.

As noted, in accordance with various further embodiments orimplementations of the present systems and methods, paid and/or unpaidsubscribers may be provided notifications of controlled-environmentfacility resident changes via phone, email, SMS notifications, or thelike, as updated inmate information. Such subscribers may includefriends, family, and/or other constituents or interested parties, suchas an inmate's victim(s), a prosecuting or defense attorney responsiblefor an inmate's case, or the like, or even the resident/inmatethemselves. Typically, changes in bond information, charges, movements,etc. are only communicated to constituents by the inmate his or herself,and sometimes by the facility, such as discussed above. These furtherembodiments or implementations afford an ability to provide immediatecommunication of pertinent and important resident and facilityinformation to paid (cost for a subscription may be per resident) and/orunpaid subscribers (friends, family, attorneys, concerned constituents,bail bondsmen, victims and the press, among others, in detentionfacility implementations). With such notifications, any change made to aresident's information, such as may be hosted by a JMS or othercontrolled-environment administration and management system, can becommunicated to a subscriber. In addition, such embodiments provide anability or avenue for facilities to broadcast important information tomultiple subscribers, such as friends and family, attorneys, victims,concerned constituents, bail bondsmen and the press, among others.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an implementation of example process 700 fordissemination of information from a controlled-environment facility, inaccordance with some embodiments. Therein, a controlled-environment IVR(117) may, at 702, offer a party, such as a non-resident, or theresident him or herself, an opportunity to subscribe to notificationsabout a particular resident of a controlled-environment facility and/ornotifications about the controlled-environment facility itself. By wayof example, the opportunity may take the form of an option promptresented by the controlled-environment facility IVR (117) during a callfrom or to the non-resident to or from the controlled-environmentfacility. Such a call may be to inquire about the resident, to informthe non-resident about the resident's confinement to thecontrolled-environment facility, to fund an account of the resident ornon-resident, to solicit funds for an account of the resident, and/orthe like.

As part of a subscription process at 704, the controlled-environment IVR(117) or other system, may accept various identification and/or contactinformation for the subscriber, such as the subscriber's telephonenumber, email address, etc. Further, the subscription process mayestablish whether the subscription will be paid or not paid or free, andmay include accepting funding (e.g. a credit card number, bankingaccount information, or the like) from the subscriber if thesubscription is a paid subscription. The subscription process may alsoinclude selection of various options, such as the subscriber's preferredmethod of communication, whether the subscriber wishes to specify a typeof back-up communication if the subscriber is not reached immediatelywith a change notification using the preferred method of communication,etc. Such options might also include a “sensitivity” of triggers fornotification (i.e. small changes in a resident's or facilities statusmay trigger a notification, or a more serious change in status may berequired), such triggers may be dependent on whether the subscription ispaid or free and/or on level (i.e. cost) of a paid subscription.

Once subscription is complete the non-resident is established as asubscriber. Thereafter, when a change is made to information about theresident, such as changes in information hosted by acontrolled-environment management system (e.g. information maintained indatabase 115 of AMS 116), and/or when a change is made to informationabout the controlled-environment facility, at 706, a notification to thesubscriber may be triggered. That is, the IVR (117), or the like maydetermine at 706 when information about the resident hosted by thecontrolled-environment administration and management system (AMS 116)changes and/or when a change is made to information about thecontrolled-environment facility. Alternatively or additionally, anindication from a controlled-environment facility administration andmanagement system (AMS 116), or the like, may be provided (such as toIVR 117) when information about the resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility changes.

At 708 the subscriber is contacted and notified of the change for theresident and/or the controlled-environment facility at 710, such as viaa voice call, text message, video mail, video call, a website notice, orthe like. As one example, in accordance with various embodiments, thesubscriber may be telephoned (708) at the number provided duringsubscription by the controlled-environment facility IVR (117) andnotified (710) of the change by playing of a voice message, such as aninteractive voice message. Such an interactive voice message may, inaccordance with some embodiments, present the subscriber an opportunityto obtain further information about the resident and/or the facility,using the IVR, during the call. Additionally or alternatively, thecontrolled-environment facility IVR may present the subscriber an optionto carry out at least one action with respect to the residentcorresponding to a category of an action last carried out by a callerassociated with the phone number. For example, if the last time a callparty associated with the number was contacted or contacted thefacility, the party deposited money to an account maintained for thebenefit of the resident, the IVR may inquire as to whether the callparty would like to again make such a deposit. Further, the IVR maypresent the subscriber an offer to facilitate an action related to thechange. For example, in a jail facility embodiment, if the resident hasbecome eligible to be bailed out the IVR may offer the subscriber ameans or avenue to pay the bail during the call, and/or provide thesubscriber information about bail bondsmen, or the like, such asdiscussed above.

As a further example, in accordance with some embodiments, thesubscriber may be contacted at 708 by or through the IVR (117), thecontrolled-environment facility communication system (101), or the like,sending a short message service (SMS), enhanced messaging service (EMS)and/or multimedia message service (MMS) text message to the numberprovided by the subscriber. This text message may notify (710) thesubscriber of the change for the resident and/or the change for thecontrolled-environment facility in a statement crafted to fit in a textmessage. For example, in an incarceration facility embodiment, an SMSmay read something like “John Smith is scheduled for release from Prisonon Feb. 14, 2015. For more information go to URL.com.”

In contrast, the subscriber may be contacted via email at 708, at anemail address provided during subscription to provide notification 710of the change for the resident and/or the controlled-environmentfacility. This email may be sent by or through the IVR (117), thecontrolled-environment facility communication system (101), the AMS(116), or the like. Such an email may contain somewhat more informationthan a text message, or the like. For example, notification of thechange for the resident and/or the controlled-environment facility inthe email may include an indication of a former status of the residentand/or the controlled-environment facility, as well as the new status ofthe resident and/or the controlled-environment facility. Additionally, ahyperlink, of the like, may be provided to a website, or the like, wheremore information about the resident and/or the controlled-environmentfacility may be obtained by the subscriber. Hence, a correspondingexample incarceration embodiment email message might indicate somethinglike: “John Smith was granted parole on Jan. 15, 2015 by the StateParole Board. Johns Smith will be released from Prison on Feb. 14, 2015,at approximately 2:00 pm, Central Standard Time. More information aboutJohn Smith and Prison may be obtained by clicking on URL.com. Please beprepared to provide your login and password to access certaininformation.”

In accordance with embodiments of the present systems and methods, anexample implementation of a controlled-environment facility notificationsystem applying process 700, may include controlled-environmentmanagement system, such as AMS 116 discussed above, wherein informationabout residents of the controlled-environment facility and informationabout the controlled-environment facility may be stored, such as indatabase 115. Further, IVR 117, controlled-environment communicationprocessing system 101, and/or the like, may be employed as a part of thecontrolled-environment facility notification system to offer thenon-resident an opportunity or option to subscribe to notificationsabout a particular resident of the controlled-environment facilityand/or notifications about the controlled-environment facility at 702,as discussed above.

IVR 117, controlled-environment communication processing system 101,and/or the like, may also accept the subscription of the non-resident asa subscriber to notifications for the particular resident and/ornotifications about the controlled-environment facility at 704, asdiscussed. The subscription may include contact information for thenon-resident, as noted, such as a telephone number and/or an emailaddress of the non-resident, and may also include any required paymentarrangements.

Further, IVR 117, controlled-environment communication processing system101, and/or the like, may, such as in conjunction with AMS 116, or thelike, determine and/or otherwise recognize, at 706, when a change ismade to the information about the resident that is stored by thecontrolled-environment management system 116 in database 115 and/or whena change is made to information about the controlled-environmentfacility, similarly stored by the controlled-environment managementsystem 116 in database 115. Such determination or recognition at 706,may, in certain embodiments, take the form of AMS 116, or the like,notifying, or otherwise indicating to, IVR 117, 117,controlled-environment communication processing system 101, and/or thelike, by way of example, when a change is made to resident and/orfacility information in database 115.

As noted, the subscriber may be contacted at 708 using the subscriptioncontact information through an interactive telephone call, by sending atext message or via email. At 710 the subscriber is notified of thechange during the contact. As discussed above, IVR 117 may present thesubscriber an option to carry out action(s) with respect to the residentcorresponding to category(ies) of action(s) previously carried out by acaller associated with the telephone number. IVR 117 may also presentthe subscriber an opportunity to obtain further information about theresident and/or an offer to facilitate an action related to the change,using the IVR during an interactive telephone call, such as describedabove. As also noted above an email notification of the change for theresident and/or the controlled-environment facility may include anindication of a former status of the resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility and a new status of the resident and/orthe controlled-environment facility, and may include a hyperlink to awebsite where more information about the resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility may be obtained.

In some embodiments, the various operations described above may be usedto disseminate information to non-residents in other suitable ways. Forexample, a website may be provided such that an inmate's family andfriends are able to log in and obtain information concerning thatinmate. Additionally or alternatively, such information may be providedto non-residents via a native software application, such as a mobileapplication downloaded and/or executed on a non-resident's mobile deviceand/or via a desktop software application. As such, the foregoinginformation dissemination techniques may be used such that informationis available for non-residents to access anytime and/or in real-time.

It should be understood that the various operations described herein,particularly in connection with FIGS. 4 through 7, might be implementedin software executed by processing circuitry, hardware, or a combinationthereof. The order in which each operation of a given method isperformed may be changed, and various operations may be added,reordered, combined, omitted, modified, etc. It is intended that theinvention(s) described herein embrace all such modifications and changesand, accordingly, the above description should be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

The various systems and methods illustrated in the figures and describedherein represent example embodiments. The methods may be implemented insoftware, hardware, or a combination thereof. The order in which eachoperation of a given method is performed may be changed, and variouselements of the systems illustrated herein may be added, reordered,combined, omitted, modified, etc. Various modifications and changes maybe made as would be clear to a person of ordinary skill in the arthaving the benefit of this specification. It is intended that theinvention(s) described herein embrace all such modifications and changesand, accordingly, the above description should be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

Although the present invention and its advantages have been described indetail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions andalterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, thescope of the present application is not intended to be limited to theparticular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, compositionof matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. Asone of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from thedisclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture,compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing orlater to be developed that perform substantially the same function orachieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodimentsdescribed herein may be utilized according to the present invention.Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within theirscope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter,means, methods, or steps.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: offering a party to acontrolled-environment facility communication an opportunity, by one ormore controlled-environment facility computer systems, to become asubscriber to notifications about a particular resident and/or about thecontrolled-environment facility before, after, and/or during thecommunication, wherein the notifications that are offered are determinedbased on an incarceration status of the resident; accepting asubscription, from a subscriber by the one or more computer systems, tonotifications about the particular resident of a controlled-environmentfacility and/or notifications about the controlled-environment facility;determining, or receiving an indication, by the one or more computersystems when a change is made to information about the resident in thesame or different one or more computer systems and/or when a change ismade to information about the controlled-environment facility;contacting the subscriber; and notifying the subscriber of the change.2. The method of claim 1, further comprising offering a non-resident orthe resident an opportunity to subscribe to notifications about theresident and/or about the controlled-environment facility on a website,in a telephone call, and/or in a text message.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the communication is a communication by a non-resident toinquire about the resident.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommunication is a communication by a non-resident to fund an account ofthe resident.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein accepting thesubscription further comprises establishing whether the subscriptionwill be a paid subscription or a free subscription and accepting fundingfrom the subscriber if the subscription is a paid subscription.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein accepting the subscription further comprisesaccepting a telephone number and/or an email address provided by thesubscriber.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein contacting the subscriberfurther comprises placing a telephone call to the number provided by thesubscriber and notifying the subscriber comprises playing an interactivevoice message, by a controlled-environment facility interactive voiceresponse system, to the subscriber, presenting the change for theresident and/or the change for the controlled-environment facility. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein the controlled-environment facilityinteractive voice response system presents the subscriber an opportunityto obtain further information about the resident and/or the facilityusing the interactive voice response system during the call.
 9. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the controlled-environment facilityinteractive voice response system presents the subscriber an option tocarry out at least one action with respect to the resident and/orfacility corresponding to at least one category of at least one actionlast carried out by a caller associated with the phone number.
 10. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the controlled-environment facilityinteractive voice response system presents the subscriber an offer tofacilitate an action related to the change.
 11. The method of claim 6,wherein contacting the subscriber further comprises sending a shortmessage service, enhanced messaging service and/or multimedia messageservice text message to the number provided by the subscriber andnotifying the subscriber comprises providing the subscriber a statementof the change for the resident and/or the change for thecontrolled-environment facility.
 12. The method of claim 6, whereincontacting the subscriber comprises sending an email to the emailaddress provided by the subscriber to notify the subscriber of thechange for the resident and/or the change for the controlled-environmentfacility.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein notification of the changefor the resident and/or the change for the controlled-environmentfacility in the email includes an indication of a former status of theresident and/or the controlled-environment facility and a new status ofthe resident and/or the controlled-environment facility.
 14. The methodof claim 12, wherein the email includes at least one hyperlink to awebsite where more information about the resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility may be obtained by the subscriber. 15.The method of claim 1 wherein notifying the subscriber of the changecomprises, at least in part notifying the subscriber of the change via awebsite.
 16. The method of claim 1 wherein notifying the subscriber ofthe change comprises, at least in part notifying the subscriber of thechange via a video.
 17. A controlled-environment facility notificationsystem comprising: one or more computer systems, each comprising atleast one processor and a memory coupled to the at least one processor,the memory configured to store program instructions executable by the atleast one processor to cause the one or more computer systems tocontrolled-environment management system to: store information aboutresidents of the controlled-environment facility and information aboutthe controlled-environment facility; and offer an opportunity to becomea subscriber to notifications about a particular resident and/or aboutthe controlled-environment facility, wherein the notifications that areoffered are determined based on an incarceration status of the resident;accept a subscriber's subscription to offered notifications for aparticular resident of the controlled-environment facility and/ornotifications about the controlled-environment facility, thesubscription including contact information for the subscriber andpayment for the subscription is the subscription is not a freesubscription; determine, or receive an indication from another of theone or more computer systems, when a change is made to the informationabout the resident stored by the one or more computer systems and/orwhen a change is made to information about the controlled-environmentfacility stored by the one or more computer systems; contact thesubscriber by telephone, by sending a text message, via video, and/orvia email; and notify the subscriber of the change during the contact orby directing the subscriber to a website.
 18. The controlled-environmentfacility notification system of claim 17, wherein the one or morecomputer systems present a non-resident or the resident an opportunityto subscribe to notifications about the resident and/or about thecontrolled-environment facility on a website, in a telephone call,and/or in a text message.
 19. The controlled-environment facilitynotification system of claim 17, wherein the one or more computersystems present the subscriber an option to carry out at least oneaction with respect to the resident corresponding to at least onecategory of at least one action last carried out by the subscriber. 20.The controlled-environment facility notification system of claim 17,wherein the one or more computer systems present the subscriber anopportunity to obtain further information about the resident.
 21. Thecontrolled-environment facility notification system of claim 17, whereinthe one or more computer systems present the subscriber an offer tofacilitate an action related to the change.
 22. Thecontrolled-environment facility notification system of claim 17, whereina notification of the change for the resident and/or the change for thecontrolled-environment facility includes an indication of a formerstatus of the resident and/or the controlled-environment facility and anew status of the resident and/or the controlled-environment facility.23. The controlled-environment facility notification system of claim 17,wherein a notification of the change for the resident and/or the changefor the controlled-environment facility includes at least one link to awebsite where more information about the resident and/or thecontrolled-environment facility may be obtained by the subscriber.
 24. Atangible computer-readable storage medium having program instructionsstored thereon that, upon execution by one or morecontrolled-environment facility computer systems, cause the one or morecontrolled-environment facility computer systems to: acceptidentification, contact and any required payment information from asubscriber to establish a subscription to notifications about aparticular resident of a controlled-environment facility and/ornotifications about the controlled-environment facility, wherein thenotifications that are available for subscription are determined basedon an incarceration status of the resident; determine, or receive anindication from one or more other controlled-environment facilitycomputer systems, when information about the resident hosted by the sameor one or more other controlled environment computer systems changesand/or when a change is made to information about thecontrolled-environment facility; contact the subscriber; and notify thesubscriber of the change during the contact or by directing thesubscriber to a website.